Collection inventory

Robert Francis Papers

An inventory of
his papers
at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection

Creator:

Francis, Robert, 1901-1987.

Title:

Robert Francis Papers

Dates:

1926-1967

Quantity:

5.0 linear ft.

Abstract:

Papers of the American poet, author. Correspondence (1926-1966) with Robert Frost,
John Holmes, Theodore Morrison, and others; writings (1936-1967) include typescript
poems, essays, and book manuscripts; and printed material, including articles and
poems.

Biographical History

Robert Francis (1901-1987) was an American poet and author. Born in Upland, Pennsylvania
in 1901, the son of
Ebenezer Francis, a minister, his childhood was spent in towns in New
Jersey and New York states until 1910, when the family moved to
Massachusetts. Francis graduated from Harvard College (B.A., 1923)
and then taught in the preparatory school of the American University of
Beirut, Lebanon, for a year. He returned to attend Harvard University,
where he received an Ed. M., followed by a year of teaching high school
English in Amherst (1926).

Francis began writing "with a view to publication" about the time he
moved to Amherst. By living economically and by doing all his own
chores, he has been able to live without salaried positions and to
devote much of his time to writing. He held occasional positions as a
violin teacher, as an English teacher at Mount Holyoke College, and as a
teacher at summer writers' conferences. In 1940, Francis moved alone in a one-man
house called Fort Juniper, in Amherst,
Massachusetts and subsequently adopted the juniper as his "coat-of-
arms."

Francis received numerous awards over his career, including the Shelly Memorial Award
and the Golden Rose of
the New England Poetry Club. He held fellowships at the Bread Loaf
Writers' Conference and in Rome from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters. His poems have appeared in
Saturday Review,
The New Yorker,
Forum,
Yankee, and other national literary magazines. His prose
works include
We Fly Away (1948),
The Satirical Rogue on Poetry
(1968), and
The Trouble With Francis (1971). His six volumes of poetry
include
Come Out Into the Sun (1965),
The Orb Weaver (1960),
The Face
Against the Glass (1950),
The Sound I Listened For (1943, 1944),
Valhalla
and Other Poems (1938), and
Stand With Me Here (1936). Other works include
Rome Without Camera (1958) and
What a Witch Told Me (1956).

Correspondence, 1926-1966, comprised of exchanges between Mr.
Francis and his fellow-writers, includes both incoming
and outgoing. Here are letters to critics,
words of congratulation and criticism about Mr. Francis's books of
poetry, and personal letters between friends. Important correspondents include
American Academy of Arts and Letters, Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards, Gerald
Warner Brace, Robert Frost, John Holmes, Houghton
Mifflin Company, Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, The Massachusetts
Review, Theodore Morrison, David Morton, New England Poetry Club, and
Mary P. Sears Trust.

Writings, 1936-1967, consist of notes, original
typescripts of individual
poems, printed versions of the poems, book reviews, essays, non-fiction,
poetry, and one item about Francis. Most of the writings are worksheets of poems
revised by the author; also included are printed versions of
some of the poem and notes about the
revisions and publication of the poems. Essays, 1940-1953, consist of
newspaper clippings taken
from the "Home Forum Page" of the
Christian Science Monitor,
including
fan mail about particular essays. A list of this correspondence, with
dates, may be found in the first folder in Box 1. Non-fiction includes
articles printed about literary subjects, 1963-1967. Poetry, 1947-1966, contains an
alphabetical listing of poems, either in
typescript or printed form, which were not included in any of Mr.
Francis's volumes.

Published material contains issues of Forum and a copy of the
Official Register of Harvard University, vol. XLII, no. 2.
Three
Tape recordings are of Mr. Francis reading his own
poetry.

Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence is subdivided into incoming and outgoing,
each arranged alphabetically. Writings are arranged alphabetically by type
and within that by title; writings about Francis appear at the end of this series.
Most of the writings are worksheets of poems
revised by the author; these are arranged alphabetically under the title of the
book in which the poems appeared, as are printed versions of
some of the poems. Notes about the
revisions and publication of the poems are filed with the poem, though in some cases
these
notes were grouped together and called "Histories"
by the author. Published material is arranged alphabetically. The oversize package
of tape
recordings is in no particular order.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require
advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance
concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and
all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from
any
materials in this collection.

"Thoreau in Italy", "Sniper", "Cinna", "Edith Sitwell Assumes the Role of Luna of
If you Know What I Mean Said the Moon," "The Packing Case", "Dolphin", "Observation",
"Coin Diver" in the
Massachusetts Review, vol. 3, no. 3 (
Spring, 1962), pp. 475-480.